Speculation about BREXIT continues to mount and while it is useful to have some clarity as to the future, we urgently need more details as to what our trading relationship with the EU might look like. We welcome the recognition that we need a comprehensive customs agreement and that trade should be as frictionless as possible. Advanced manufacturing, in the UK and Europe, depends on highly internationalised supply chains and leaving the Single Market raises many questions for our members. Any agreement must include the components and technologies that make up complex products and systems. 

The MTA therefore believes that the ‘associate’ status of the Customs Union which the Prime Minister aspired to in her Lancaster House speech of 17th January needs to be a close as possible to full member status insofar as it affects UK-EU trade.

Joined-up approach

Government's Industrial Strategy Green Paper is also welcomed by the MTA, as we have been calling for a joined-up approach to the industry for some time now. The priority the Prime Minister has placed on Industrial Strategy, marks a change in approach from the previous administration. We believe, if implemented properly, Industrial Strategy could be an important contributor to creating an environment that promotes the long term investment in technology and skills that we need to deliver a step change in productivity.

Some issues included in the Industrial Strategy, such as skills and finance, resonate across the economy as a whole. But sectors all have their specific challenges and we therefore welcome the establishment of a task force to look at industrial digitalisation to be led by Juergen Maier CEO of MTA member company Siemens UK.

It is very important that when operating through sectors Government recognises that the technology – which in advanced manufacturing is the driver of the changes that we are seeing through innovations like additive manufacturing, robotics and AI – is cross sectoral and therefore needs to be included in a very broad range of outcomes. We also welcome the explicit recognition of the key role that trade shows play in many sectors – something that has been a bit of a blind spot in recent years.

Other topics in the Green Paper that chime with work that the MTA has been doing are: Support for high growth companies, better awareness on the part of young people of their careers options; and providing more wattage to the Northern Powerhouse and the Midlands Engine.

What we need is joined-up think for both of these ambitious plans to come to fruition and the MTA stands ready to help Government achieve those aims.